I wanted to share a few little Lily moments for my memory, and perhaps to give you a giggle. I'm going to be laughing at my kids my whole life (in a loving kind of way), and I hope they know I do it is because I find so much joy in children and their innocence.
I think she really believes we can't see her when she "hides" behind her little hands.
This afternoon while I was getting Lily her snack I had Oprah turned on. A Michael Jackson impersonator happened to be dancing on T.V. Lily was watching him with her head cocked to the side. Suddenly she looked at the ground, stuck her arms out to the side, and started to carefully walk backwards, trying to drag her feet on the ground. I burst out laughing when I realized she was trying to moonwalk! I wish I had been able to catch it on video, but our memory card was full and the moment was over before I could delete enough pics. Just wait, I'm going to try again.Tonight as we were getting ready for bed I had her up on the changing table as I dug for nighttime ingredients (diapers, pajamas, etc.). I looked over and she had stood up (something I swear she does to try and make me poop my pants in fear) and was bobbing up and down with the nobs at the the of the blindcord in her ears. I realized she thought they were headphone buds and was dancing to her own little tune. She tried to put them in my ears too, but I failed to hear the music that made her bob up and down.
It reminded me of a funny teaching moment I had. A little boy in my class, Kurtis, groaned whenever I put in a certain Disney CD for the kids to listen to while they completed art projects, or cleaned. As I was walking around the room helping students I saw Kurtis stick two pencil erasers in his ears. How could I do anything but laugh as he grinned and settled back into working, with Disney effectively plugged from his life. At least he didn't eat them like he normally did.
I hate this time of year when school begins. It never fails to make me sad that I'm not putting together lesson plans, decorating my classroom, organizing materials, and excited to meet a crop of new kids that will steal my heart (though don't take that statement as ingratitude on my part that I'm privileged to stay at home and raise Lily). I just wish I could have it all at times.
Keith and I recently got our things out of storage from Utah and most of the things I had packed up were teaching materials, children's books, and memorabilia from the past. I was going through a bunch of random papers, sorting them into piles when I came across this scribbled post it note I wrote down to remember a cute moment with one of my favorite third graders:
"Miss Miles! Miss Miles! Come here! Something's wrong with my eyes."
"What's wrong David? Do they hurt?"
"No, my eyelids keep on closing and they won't stay open. I can't stop them."
"Is it because you are feeling sleepy David?"
"Oh. Maybe that's why."
David was full of funny quotes and memories. He was a sweet boy with a Cindy Brady lisp. One day we went to go and see another class put on a play "The Tortoise and the Hare." David was really into the play and spent most of it up on his knees watching intently. At the end he cheered with the other students when the tortoise won the race (good ol' Colin if I remember correctly, who was my student the following year). The actors gathered to tell the moral of the story announcing, "Remember, slow and steady wins the race." David, in utter disbelief turned around and said to me, "Who is Slow and Steady? I thought the Tortoise won!?!"
*I just have to leave a note for Julie here. Thanks for sharing your Zach stories. They really are such a highlight in my day when I read of something cute and funny he said or did. In case you don't know little four year old Zach, I'm stealing some of his recent oneliners from Julie's blog (hope you don't mind, it was too cute not to share):
Julie wrote, "Chris was telling me how the lady at the tux store had said that we had a basketball player on our hands with Zach. Zach, looking at his hands, "I don't have a basketball player on my hands, do you guys?""
"While we were flying on the plane he was looking carefully at the clouds and said, "I think that we're high enough that we should be able to see heaven, but I don't see it on any of these clouds yet.""
